Pool ball rack

ABSTRACT

A ball rack for pool or pocket billiards having a removable bottom member adapted to fit into recesses formed in the inner faces along the lower edges of two sides of the rack. An inwardly extending support member on the underside of the toe of the rack and an inwardly projecting flange on the rear edge of the bottom member, the latter slidably engaging a recess in the outer face of the third side of the rack, support the bottom member in the recesses for movement of the rack from the ball return compartment to the surface of the game table. The lower edge of the third side of the rack is cut away to allow the rack and balls to be slid into the ball-spotting position on the table while the bottom member remains in place, its motion restrained by frictional means provided on its lower surface.

United States Patent Primary Examiner-Richard C. Pinkham Assistant ExaminerR. T Stouffer Al!0rney-Robert Louis Finkel ABSTRACT: A ball rack for pool or pocket billiards having a removable bottom member adapted to fit into recesses formed in the inner faces along the lower edges of two sides of the rack. An inwardly extending support member on the underside of the toe of the rack and an inwardly projecting flange on the rear edge of the bottom member, the latter slidably engaging a recess in the outer face of the third side of the rack, support the bottom member in the recesses for movement of the rack from the ball return compartment to the surface of the game table. The lower edge of the third side of the rack is cut away to allow the rack and balls to be slid into the ballspotting position on the table while the bottom member remains in place, its motion restrained by frictional means provided on its lower surface.

POOL BALI. RACK BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1 Field of the Invention This invention relates to racks for use with pool and billiard tables having ball return chutes and ball receivers, and more particularly to such racks having slidably removable bottoms.

2. Description of the Prior Art Many efforts have been made to design means for use with conventional ball-retuming pool or billiard tables to facilitate the transfer and racking of the balls after they have been collected. A number of these have been patented. Some prior art devices employ complicated mechanical structures which are expensive to manufacture and difficult to maintain and operate, or require the handling of heavy and awkward assemblies. Others, such as those depicted in U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,463,845 and 1,743,891, provide for the collection of the balls in the rack itself and their transfer to the tabletop in the rack; however, these devices require their user to go through at least one additional step before he is able to position the balls and remove the rack. A third type, such as that shown in U.S. Pat. No. 966,552 employs a rack having a slidably removable bottom member adapted to be supported in grooves provided on the inner faces of the sides of the rack. This approach to the solution of the problem is by far the simplest and most practical, and the subject invention envisions an improvement in such racks.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The subject invention comprises a ball rack for pool or pocket billiards having substantially the same size and shape as the racks conventionally used in those games. Indeed, it is contemplated that any existing rack may readily be adapted to incorporate the teachings of the invention.

A rack in accordance with this invention has a removable bottom member adapted to fit into recesses formed in the inner faces along the lower edges of two of the sides of the rack. An inwardly extending support member on the underside of the toe of the rack and an inwardly projecting flange on the rear edge of the bottom member, the latter slidably engaging a recess in the outer face of the third side of the rack, support the bottom member in the recesses for movement of the rack from a ball return compartment under the game table to the tables surface. The lower edge of the third side of the rack is cut away to allow the rack and balls to be slid into the ball spotting position on the table while the bottom member remains in place, its motion restrained by frictional means provided on its lower surface.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a fragmentary composite perspective view of a pool table illustrating serially the steps of the ball transferring and racking procedure employing the subject invention;

FIG. 2 is a side sectional view of the rack shown in FIG. 1 taken in the direction 2-2;

FIG. 3 is a plan view of the underside of the rack of FIG. 2 taken in the direction 3-3;

FIG. 4 is a rear elevation view of the rack of FIG. 3 taken in the direction 44;

FIG. 5 is a perspective view of the underside of the rack of FIGS. 2-4;

FIG. 6 is an enlarged fragmentary side sectional view of another embodiment of the subject invention; and

FIG. 7 is a plan view of the underside of the removable bottom of the rack of FIG. 6.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS FIG. 1 illustrates a typical pool or pocket billiard table 11 having a plurality of pockets 12 connected by means of auxiliary chutes to a main ball return chute below the tabletop. The chutes are inclined so that the pocketed balls are guided to, and deposited in a receiver 13 which is generally open to provide access to the collected balls. In the subject invention an outer wall 14 may be provided over the face of receiver 13, either in the initial construction of the table or in the modification of existing tables for use with the subject invention, since as will be seen, alternate access to the balls is provided. Although the specific construction of the ball racking mechanism is outside of the scope of this invention, preferably receiver 13 is fitted with a rack holder 15 positioned below it, and an opening 16 is provided in the floor of receiver 13. Rack holder 15 is adapted to receive a ball rack 17 constructed in accordance with the subject invention. Such a rack is shown at position A in place to receive the pocketed balls.

FIGS. 2-5 show the novel construction of a rack 17 embodying the subject invention. This rack is substantially identical with the triangular rack in current use, except that recesses 21 are formed in the inner faces along the lower edges of two of the sides 22 of the rack 17. The third side of the rack 23 has its lower edge cut away (as shown at numeral 24) to expose recesses 21.

A first support member 31 is provided on the underside of the toe 32 of the rack. The shape and construction of this member 31 may be varied; however, for illustrative purposes it is shown in FIGS. 2-5 as a thin rigid generally triangularshaped metal or plastic plate recessed into the underside of the toe 32 of rack 17 and held in place by conventional means such as screws 33. Whatever its form, support member 31 extends inwardly (as shown by numeral 34) beyond the inner faces of sides 22. As will be seen presently, the function of support member 31 can be served by a variety of alternative means. Thus, extension 34 may be formed integrally with toe block 35. Likewise extension 34 may be in the form of one or more tongues, rods, strips, teeth or other convenient members (none shown) projecting generally away from toe 32 and inwardly of sides 22.

A bottom member 41 is sized to fit fairly snugly in recesses 21. In the embodiment of the invention illustrated in FIGS. 2-5 the underside of the toe 42 of bottom 41 is recessed to allow toe 42 to be inserted in recesses 21 over the inward extension 34 of support member 31.

A second support member, preferably in the form of an inverted L-shaped metal flange 51 is attached to the rear edge of bottom 41. A slot or recess 52 is formed in the outer face of side 23 to receive the inwardly directed end 53 of flange 51. If desired a hook 61 or similar fastening device may be mounted on flange 51 to engage a boss 62 or the like on side 23 to retain bottom 41 firmly in place in recesses 21.

Bottom 41 may be made of a material having a high coefficient of friction, or its underside may be roughened in its manufacture to provide a frictional interface with the surface of the game table.

FIGS. 6 and 7 illustrate a slightly different embodiment of the subject invention. Here the toe 42 of bottom 41 is not cut away as in the embodiment illustrated in FIG. 2. Rather, bottom 41 and recesses 21 are so dimensioned as to permit blocks 64 of frictional material such as felt or the like to be attached to the underside of bottom 41.

Returning to FIG. 1, the letters B, C and D designate the several steps involved in racking a set of pool or billiard balls using the rack of the subject invention. When rack 17 is full, or in some games, contains all but one of the object balls, it is removed from rack holder 15 and placed on the tabletop in position 8, with the players hands holding the rack in substantially the same manner as if it were a conventional handloaded rack. The rack 17 is slid forward along the tabletop to position C with sufficient downward pressure to insure frictional contact between the undersurface of bottom 41 or, in the second embodiment illustrated, pads 64, and the felt tabletop.

If rack 17 is provided with a security device 61 and it has been activated to engage boss 62 before removal of the rack from holder 15, the device 61 is simultaneously released in order to allow bottom 41 to be disengaged from the rack 17.

The friction between the undersurface of bottom 41 or pads 64 and the tabletop causes bottom 41 to remain in place at position C while the rack 17 and its entrapped balls are slid further forward to the ball spotting position D. With the balls thus properly positioned rack 17 lifted from the table as with conventional racks. Bottom 41 is reinserted in rack 17 and the rack repositioned in holder 15, and the game is ready to continue. in practice the reinsertion of bottom 41 in rack 17 is easily accomplished by reversing the process illustrated in steps C and D of FIG. 1.

Having thus described the specific features of several embodiments of the invention, what I claim is:

l. A ball rack comprising:

three upstanding sides, two of said sides being provided with recesses in their lower edges extending along their inner faces, and the portion of the third side extending below the level of the tops of said recesses being cut away;

a flat bottom member sized to be inserted slidingly into said rack through the cut away portion of said third side, and to fit in said recesses;

a first support member on the underside of said two sides at their adjacent ends, adapted to receive slidingly and support a first portion of said bottom member when the same is positioned in said recesses; and

a second support member on the bottom member opposite said first portion thereof, adapted to engage releaseably and be supported by the third side of said rack when the toe of said bottom member is slidingly inserted in said recesses and engages said first support member and when so supported to retain said bottom member in said recesses, said second support member comprising an upstanding inverted L-shaped flange projecting inwardly of the side of said bottom member opposite the toe thereof.

2. The ball rack of claim 1 in which:

said first support member comprises a thin rigid plate extending inwardly of the inner faces of said two sides.

3. The ball rack of claim 1 in which:

said third side of the rack is provided with a recess formed in the outer face thereof and adapted to receive slidingly and releasably support said flange.

4. The ball rack of claim 3 in which:

frictional means are provided on the underside of said bottom member to engage frictionally the top surface of the game table when said rack is slid into the ball-spotting position on said surface.

5. The ball rack of claim 4 in which:

said frictional means include a pad having a thickness substantially the same as that of said first support member.

6. The ball rack of claim 1 in which:

said first support member is recessed in the underside of said rack so that its lower surface is flush with the lower edges of the sides of the rack; and

the underside of the toe of said bottom member is recessed to fit slidingly over the upper surface of said first support member.

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1. A ball rack comprising: three upstanding sides, two of said sides being provided with recesses in their lower edges extending along their inner faces, and the portion of the third side extending below the level of the tops of said recesses being cut away; a flat bottom member sized to be inserted slidingly into said rack through the cut away portion of said third side, and to fit in said recesses; a first support member on the underside of said two sides at their adjacent ends, adapted to receive slidingly and support a first portion of said bottom member when the same is positioned in said recesses; and a second support member on the bottom member opposite said first portion thereof, adapted to engage releaseably and be supported by the third side of said rack when the toe of said bottom member is slidingly inserted in said recesses and engages said first support member and when so supported to retain said bottom member in said recesses, said second support member comprising an upstanding inverted L-shaped flange projecting inwardly of the side of said bottom member opposite the toe thereof.
 2. The ball rack of claim 1 in which: said first support member comprises a thin rigid plate extending inwardly of the inner faces of said two sides.
 3. The ball rack of claim 1 in which: said third side of the rack is provided with a recess formed in the outer face thereof and adapted to receive slidingly and releasably support said flange.
 4. The ball rack of claim 3 in which: frictional means are provided on the underside of said bottom member to engage frictionally the top surface of the game table when said rack is slid into the ball-spotting position on said surface.
 5. The ball rack of claim 4 in which: said frictional means include a pad having a thickness substantially the same as that of said first support member.
 6. The ball rack of claim 1 in which: said first support member is recessed in the underside of said rack so that its lower surface is flush with the lower edges of the sides of the rack; and the underside of the toe of said bottom member is recessed to fit slidingly over the upper Surface of said first support member. 